When the Rural Municipality of Perdue held its monthly meeting Sept. 9, it had to switch locations to accommodate a larger than usual crowd.
One hundred people came to vent their frustrations on both sides of the central Saskatchewan community’s most divisive issue in decades – hog barns.
There is opposition to plans by Bear Hills Pork Producers and partner Heartland Livestock to build a 2,650-animal farrow-to-finish multi-site hog operation. Packed council and information meetings, petitions and a secret ballot on the barns have left a divided community, say residents.
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“I hope this meeting has put the issue behind us,” said reeve Dave Miller, after a motion at the meeting failed to halt the project.
The motion was to rescind a June 10 motion that approved permits for the barn project. The rescinding motion failed to pass for a second time in as many months.
The motion was voted on by four of the seven members of the RM council. Three councillors, including reeve Miller, didn’t vote because they have been promoting the barn project. The resulting vote was two opposed and two in favor, which was not enough to pass the motion and is the second time such a deadlock has happened.
“The real issue is why does the provincial government get to determine what is a development and what isn’t,” said Shirley Ball, a councillor and local farmer. “Sask Ag promotes hog barn expansion. Sask Ag regulates the barns and decides what is a farm and what is industrial. Sask Environment decides what is widespread public concern. It doesn’t seem right.”
Development or farm?
Public concern is one measure under the Environmental Assessment Act that can be used by the province to decide whether a project, such as the hog barns, is a development or a farm. A development would require an environmental impact assessment, as called for by petitions from the community and a poll held Sept. 3.
“Widespread public concern is usually viewed as being beyond the purely local level if the local area is represented by a municipal council. We are very reluctant to override local approval processes,” said Ron Zukowski, director of the provincial environmental assessment branch.
However Betty Hamm, an RM councillor who wants an environmental assessment, told a meeting earlier this month: “To us, widespread is a large portion of the community that the project affects. People on the other side of the RM aren’t even going to get excited. Our council has three people selling shares in the barns and the province says we should work it out ourselves.”
The application for the barns remains in the hands of the provincial agriculture department, which will review changes to the proposed sewage lagoon called for by the environmental assessment branch.
